Lolo hadn’t mentioned his birthday all day-- not during meditation, not during lunch, not during combat training, and not during dinner, so when Lolo asked Standig to help her move something heavy in her room after dinner, he was certain that she’d forgotten. He debated whether or not to remind her, but he didn’t want to make her feel bad for forgetting. On the other hand, when she did remember in a few days, she would blame him for not saying anything. At the same time, he didn’t want her to think that his birthday was especially important to him. He had his pride to protect after all. Ultimately, he decided not to say anything. Later, he could pretend that he’d forgotten about it too.

“Thanks for helping me with this, Standig,” Lolo smiled when she opened the door.

“What do you need help moving?”

“I want to push the bed to the other side of the room under the window over there,” Lolo pointed.

“Why?”

“Because, this time of the year, the moonlight shines through that window at night. With my bed there, I could meditate under the moon from my bed!”

Standig snorted. “That way when you fall asleep meditating, you’re all ready to go!”

“Exactly!” Lolo laughed. “I’m glad you see the logic.”

Standig dragged the bed away from the far wall just enough to get around the other side so that he could push it. One step, two steps, clang! Standig kicked something under the bed. He got down on all fours to see what he’d hit. “Hey Lolo, you forgot to get your stuff out from under here first. I hope I didn’t break anything.” Rummaging around blindly, he found an enormous shield. “Lolo, what is this?” He looked up to find her sitting on her bed, grinning mischievously.

“Happy birthday, Standig.”

“What?”

“Happy birthday!” She flung her arms around his startled neck. “Twenty years old…. You didn’t think I’d forgotten, did you?”

“Uh….”

“That’s for you, by the way. Whom else would a shield that size be for? I designed it with Fortus, he had to help me draw it (you know how bad I am at drawing), and I sent the design out to have it made for you. The blacksmith thought I was crazy to request a kite shield that was over six feet long and thirty inches wide at the top,” Lolo laughed. “I just hope it’s big enough. But it’s made from steel which is overall lighter than having it made from wood, and it’s more durable. I was thinking that this would be a good item to add to your arsenal. You’re good at barrelling people over in a fight and breaking front lines. Fortus helped me add practical elements to the shape of the shield to help knock people around. See the middle groove from the top all the way to the bottom? The shield basically acts like a wedge, forcing whatever you hit to one side or the other. Where you’re so tall, I figured a kite shield was a good choice. Everyone's weapons are lower to the ground than yours, so your legs are an easy target. Durfein tried to address that issue in your armor's design, but I figured an added layer of defense wouldn’t hurt. We tried to match the style of the shield to your armor too. It’s not quite as pretty as Durfein’s work, but you get the general idea.” Finally through with her monologue about the shield, Lolo looked up to read Standig’s face. His expression was enigmatic. “Do you like it?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Funny!” Lolo grinned. “That’s exactly what Philige said when I gave him his birthday present. You must not do a lot of gift exchanges here in the Bear Tribe.”

“Lolo, this is amazing.”

“So you do like it,” she was pleased.

Struggling for words, Standig went for a hug instead. Lolo understood what he meant.

“You’re welcome.”

***

Seeing Standig’s excitement over his new shield, the primordials all looked forward to their birthdays with Lolo on the team. She had a knack for coming up with specially tailored gifts they didn’t know they wanted. Fortus and Ulana both turned twenty-one in December and Jadu turned twenty-four in early January.

For Fortus, Huo Lohse found a bowyer to construct a massive longbow with an impressive tensile strength of one hundred and eighty pounds and a good fletcher to make a black and gold quiver full of arrows to go with it. Of the group, only Fortus and Standig could even draw the bow far enough to shoot. Lolo was tickled by Fortus’s inability to hide his enthusiasm for his new toy. He immediately started practicing with it and was almost giddy over how much damage such a powerful bow could do.

Ulana’s gift was no less well-received.

“This is called a shuriken,” Lolo explained, handing her one of a dozen razor-sharp, six-pointed throwing stars with an accompanying utility belt. “You’ve expressed an interest in my throwing knives before. These seemed more your style. I thought they might be fun to learn to throw and incorporate into your aerial maneuvers. At least, they felt fun and dramatic.”

Ulana, who was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement, almost cut Lolo with the star in her hand as she gave her an overzealous hug on her way outside to practice throwing it at a tree in the snow.

Jadu’s gift was the most tricky for Lolo to acquire. She wrote many letters on her hunt, but, eventually, Panther Tribe Leader Utu came through for her.

“This is tulsi,” Lolo said, handing Jadu a potted plant with a red stem and green leaves. “It’s an indoor plant. At least, the snow will kill it, but it needs a window with lots of sunlight. It’s one of the few medicinal herbs Shanti said she hadn’t heard of. My understanding is that it is related to basil.”

“What are its uses?” Jadu asked as he studied the plant carefully.

Knowing he would ask this, Lolo had come prepared. “It’s supposed to treat anxiety, boost immune responses, and detoxify the body, but I figured you would do your own study of the herb to confirm those uses and identify new ones.”

“How is it used?”

“I know the leaves are boiled in teas, but I think the entire plant is usable.”

Jadu immediately pulled out a notebook to design his experiments. It had been a while since he’d had a new potential medicine to study, and he was eager to get started. Lolo was happy to leave him to it.

***

Mid-January, the team felt a shift in their training. Their progress was accelerating rapidly. Meditating was becoming easy, even for Lolo, and it didn't take long at all to feel the full benefits of meditating each day. Lolo's weekly nighttime meditations turned, by necessity, into nightly events before bed to give her wolf spirit a chance to absorb energy. Fortus liked watching this ritual because it gave him a gauge for how they were progressing as a team.

"How'd I do, Fortus?" Lolo asked like she did every night.

He smiled. "How do you feel?"

"Like I could spit lightning," Lolo laughed. "Anymore that's pretty typical after I do this."

"Well, the amount of energy you're collecting each night seems to be increasing. The light has been getting brighter, and it's taking longer for you to absorb it all," Fortus observed.

"We've got to be getting close, right? After a lightning-spitting feeling, what's next?"

Fortus shrugged. "Obviously, what we are doing is working. It's only been six and a half months. I'd say we are doing pretty well."

"I wonder if the phase of the moon has an impact on how well I absorb energy. We are approaching a full moon again."

"I'll pay attention to that as it gets closer," Fortus nodded.

"I haven't heard a team assessment from you in a while."

"Are you wanting an update?"

"I'd take one, yeah," Lolo smiled.

"Well, to be honest, I've lost a lot of my perspective. We aren't exactly normal fighters anymore, but I've gotten used to everything we are capable of. Six months ago, I'd be saying our combat skills, though different, are flawless. Where I'm used to it, I think we still have some work to do, but most people are going to have a hard time matching us."

"'Good to hear, I guess. What about our teamwork?"

"We've got a lot of good things going. We have a good leadership dynamic between you and me. I tend to create the plans and give the orders, you make sure everyone is taken care of and has what they need to be successful. We have a good balance of strength and finesse fighters, ranged and melee skills, and I think as a group, we understand each other's strengths and weaknesses pretty well. Our individual relationships with each other are solid too. 'No personal conflicts and the like, and I think any combination of us could really work together to do a lot of damage in a fight."

"That's a glowing report, captain," Lolo teased.

"Wouldn't you agree?"

"Oh, definitely! But coming from you, that's a big deal. So what are our next steps?"

"Figure out our ultimates. I'm not sure what we lack, but what we've been doing seems to be getting us there," Fortus shrugged. "Until then, we should be careful. Standig and I were actually just talking about this. We spend so much time and effort building up our spiritual energy, we're thinking that we should try to hold onto that energy as much as possible until we discover our ultimates."

"Makes sense," Lolo agreed. “I’m guessing that we need a certain amount of spiritual energy stored up in order to use our ultimates.”

“That was our thought too,” Fortus nodded.

***

Philige walked into The Great Hall to start a meeting with the military leaders. General Starkam, his sons, and Fengli had prepared their usual weekly report. The Bear Tribe military was growing rapidly. It needed to, but there were a lot of logistical things that Philige had to coordinate with the Bear General to make that feasible: troop lodging, resources, food, not even counting the actual military training, promotions, strategies and such. There was no question that the blacksmithing industry and all the weaponry artisans were booming this year, and Lolo’s farming research ended up being a useful tool to help optimize crop production to support the swelling ranks.

“General, what is your report?” Philige asked.

“We reached our goal of thirty thousand troops by the end of the month this week,” General Starkam smiled,” with eleven days to spare.”

“That’s excellent news! How many of them are battle-ready?”

“About twenty thousand. The other ten thousand are still in training.”

“And how is the training going?”

The recently promoted Captain Begrent Starkam stepped forward to give the training camp report. “We are managing to stay on top of the training with Fengli’s suggestion to break the training into month-long stages. We’ve been training up some new lieutenants to facilitate the earlier stages of the training so we can focus on the later, more advanced stages.”

“Good. And logistically, are we in good shape? Do you need anything from me?”

“We will likely need to build another camp this next month, but we’ve been preparing for that,” the Bear General replied. “Otherwise, we are doing well.”

“Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten such a straightforward report from you, General,” Philige smiled. “And how have you been?”

“Oh,” General Starkam chuckled, “I’ve been doing alright. Keeping busy. And yourself?”

“About the same,” Philige said.

“Tribe Leader Tragen!” Someone came bursting through the doors. “Bear Tribe Leader, a messenger came from the Wolf Tribe. They’re under attack!”

“The Dragon Tribe?”

“Yes.”

Philige took a deep breath and nodded. “General, it’s time to test just how battle-ready your men are. Get them assembled. Have them ready to go in two hours. I have something I need to do really quick before I join you.”

Standig was taking a break from meditating to get some water when he saw Philige approach through the trees.

“Standig!”

“Philige?” Even Standig could tell that something was up by the expression on his brother’s face.

“The Wolf Tribe is under attack.”

“What?!”

“We just got word. You told me to tell you if anything war related happened. We are currently assembling our troops to honor our alliance. Should we count on you joining us?”

Standig’s brow furrowed as he weighed the options. They weren’t ready yet. Not only that, but they were so close to discovering their ultimates, he could feel it. If they went into battle now…. No, if Lolo went into battle now, she’d give it everything she had to protect her home tribe. Everything. She was vulnerable without her ultimate, without the control she needed to harness her spiritual energy. In a split second, Standig made the choice. “We’re not ready, Philige.”

“Lolo will want to know that the Wolf Tribe is under attack. It’s her home, Standig. Her family. Her pack.”

“She can’t know.”

“Why not?”

“If she goes into battle now…. You know her, Philige. The Wolf Tribe is her home. If she goes into battle now, before she is ready, she’ll get herself killed.”

Something crossed Philige’s face that was difficult to read. “You’re sure about this?”

“Look, I’ll take the heat for this. Lolo can’t know.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea, Standig, but you know your team better than I do. It’s your call," Philige frowned. "I need to get back. We leave in just under two hours. Think about it.” Philige left again at a run.